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Aurora
: She is indeed most wondrous fair. Gold of sunshine in her hair. Lips that shame the red, red rose. In ageless sleep she finds repose.” : ―Maleficent Princess Aurora is the female protagonist of Disney's 1959 film Sleeping Beauty. She is the daughter of King Stefan and Queen Leah. She is the 3rd official Disney Princess, and the last to be developed by Walt Disney. Background Official descriptions Disney Princess : Aurora is gentle and loving, and is raised by three fairies named Flora, Fauna and Merryweather. She lives in the forest, where she meets the Prince, her one true love. Maleficent : Princess Aurora is a curious and thoughtful child who develops a bond with nature that rivals only Maleficent’s. But as she grows, Aurora is caught in the middle of the seething conflict between the forest kingdom she has grown to love and the human kingdom that holds her legacy. My Disney Experience : Awakened by Maleficent's spell, Princess Aurora believes that dreams do come true, and true love conquers all. Development The original design for Aurora has developed by Tom Oreb, who based figure of Aurora on Audrey Hepburn's thin frame and graceful demeanor. Later, Marc Davisworked on sketches of Oreb, improving the appearance and clothing of the heroine so that they were combined with angular forms of background images. Marc Davis' wife, Alice, designed some of Aurora's costumes.2 According to the designer, this was her first job at the Walt Disney Studios, during which she became Marc's wife in 1956. As with other Disney films, an actress was hired as a live-action model, as a guide for the animators. Helene Stanley became the model for the heroine.3 She had previously worked on this post, fulfilling the role of Cinderella. Personality Aurora is kind, elegant, and sophisticated, as well as a hopeless romantic. At first, she is seen as a slightly naive and carefree young woman as a result of being sheltered for most of her life. Aurora is very loyal to her "aunts" and usually obeys their rules respectfully, although she may disagree with them. Since she was raised not to talk to strangers, Aurora was naturally startled and apprehensive when the handsome Prince Phillip appeared in the forest. However, she was drawn to him before remembering her aunts' rule about not talking to strangers. Aurora then compromised in agreeing to talk to him by arranging to meet him at her cottage, under the supervision of her aunts. In later media, she is shown to have matured and become more self-assured, proactive, independent and confident in her opinions and abilities. Though it can arguably be said that as a character, she is very difficult to pin down, due to her short appearance in the movie, at least awake, that is. Physical appearance Aurora is a young woman, magically blessed with wavy waist-length golden hair like sunshine, violet eyes, a tall and slender figure, and lips that shame the red rose. Her complexion is fair and flawless, and unlike Snow White or Cinderella, her face is less rounded and more refined, giving her an appearance of maturity rather than youth despite being only 16. As a peasant, she wears a gray calf-length half-circle skirt with a funny-looking white petticoat, a black bodice over a light gray blouse with long sleeves and goes barefoot. She also has a black headband and carries a purple shawl. As her princess self, she wears a pink or blue ball gown with a petal overskirt, a neatly-laced white petticoat and long triangular sleeves. During the original film, Aurora's gown is blue as seen when Flora and Merryweather fight for the colors of her gown either in pink or blue even at the end of the film where Aurora dances with Prince Phillip in a ballroom dance. But in later appearances and merchandise, Aurora's gown is depicted as pink. Abilities In Disney Princess Enchanted Tales: Follow Your Dreams, Aurora was given a magic wand from Merryweather to use, and Aurora was able to wield its magical powers such as making two stacks of papers pick themselves up, transforming her nightgown into a ballgown with a dazzling necklace, matching earrings, and a jeweled tiara. She summoned chickens and cows and temporarily turned a man into a duck. Later in the story Aurora fixed her problems and gave away the cows to peasants. At the end of the story she returned the wand to Merryweather. In the original film, despite Aurora having been enchanted by Maleficent, a powerful sorceress, Aurora's willpower combined with shouts from the fairies temporarily gave her the strength to regain control of herself for a few seconds. Appearances Sleeping Beauty Aurora's parents named her after the Roman Goddess of the Dawn because she filled their lives with sunshine. Soon after she was born, she was presented to the kingdom at a christening, where she was betrothed to Prince Phillip, the son of King Stefan's good friend King Hubert. Also invited were the three good fairies, Flora, Fauna and Merryweather, who bestow blessings on the newborn princess. Flora and Fauna give the infant princess the gifts of beauty and song, respectively. However, before Merryweather has the opportunity to give her gift, the evil fairy Maleficent arrives. Angered because she wasn't invited to the ceremony, Maleficent puts a curse on baby Aurora. According to Maleficent, before the sun sets on Aurora's sixteenth birthday, she will prick her finger on the spindle of a spinning wheel and die. Maleficent disappears, leaving everyone in shock and horrified. Merryweather, though unable to lift the curse, could soften it. Instead of death, she would remedy the situation by placing Aurora into an enchanted sleep, only to be awakened by true love's kiss if this was to happen. Still fearful for the princess's safety, the three good fairies agree to hide the princess as a peasant for 16 years, until the danger has passed. They take the baby to a cottage in the forest and raise her, disguising themselves as her mortal aunts and renaming her Briar Rose. On Aurora's sixteenth birthday, her "aunts" send her out into the forest, so that they can prepare her birthday party in secret. While Aurora was out, she dreams of meeting a handsome prince, while singing "Once Upon a Dream". At first, she was singing with her forest friends. But she soon meets Prince Phillip, who had followed her melodic voice. Not knowing who Phillip was, or of their betrothal, she believes him to be a stranger, and attempts to leave. However, she dances with him for a bit and ends up falling in love. When he asked for her name, she then left, realizing she wasn't allowed to give her name to strangers. She does, however, tell him where she lives and asks him to meet her there that night. At home, Briar Rose comes home to a splendid birthday party. She tells her aunts about the young man that she met, but was confused when they aren't happy for her. Flora, Fauna and Merryweather reveal Briar Rose's true identity as Princess Aurora, as well as the fact that she was betrothed. The fairies sadly explain that she can never see the young man again, not knowing that he was actually her betrothed. Heartbroken, Aurora breaks into tears as she heads upstairs to weep on her bed. The fairies bring the upset Aurora back to her father's castle, take her to a room, and decide to leave her alone for a time. They conjure a crown and place it on her head so that she can eventually come to realize her royalty. While they are gone, Maleficent enchants the princess and leads her up an abandoned tower staircase. At the top floor within the empty room, Maleficent conjures a spinning wheel. The fairies realize the danger and frantically run up the stairs to stop Aurora, but before they can, Maleficent forces the girl to prick her finger, invoking the curse. The fairies arrive, but run into Maleficent, who mocks their efforts to stop her, reveals the fallen princess, who has been cursed, and vanishes The fairies place Aurora, now in an enchanted sleep, upon a bed at the top of the highest tower. While putting everyone else in the castle to sleep, the fairies discover that Phillip had been the man that Aurora met after overhearing King Hubert speak of the prince meeting a peasant girl. So the fairies go to the cottage to get Phillip, but are prompted to go to Forbidden Mountain, Maleficent's domain, after discovering that Maleficent has captured the prince. They rescue Phillip from the dungeon and arm him with the Sword of Truth and the Shield of Virtue, then have to fend off Maleficent's minions and finally exit the Forbidden Mountain and head for Stefan's castle, but Maleficent conjures a forest of thorns to prevent further entrance which was hacked through by Phillip's sword. Angered at this, Maleficent suddenly appears in their way and transforms into a dragon. After defeating the dragon with help from the fairies, Phillip enters the castle and walks up the staircase to the tower room where Aurora was still sleeping. He gives her a kiss, true love's kiss, which finally awakens Aurora and breaks the curse. Aurora smiles after she realizes that her betrothed and her love are the same person. The pair go down to meet Aurora's parents and Phillip's father, and Aurora kisses King Hubert on his cheek before sharing a dance with Phillip. While the couple dance, Flora and Merryweather reignite their rivalry on their respective colors as the two bickering fairies relentlessly change the color on her dress with their magic. Aurora's dress keeps changing colors as she and Phillip continue dancing and share another kiss, with the final words in the book, below the illustration of the couple romantically kissing (and the color of Aurora's dress still changing from blue to pink) "and they lived happily ever after". Disney Princess Enchanted Tales: Follow Your Dreams Princess Aurora appears in the first Sleeping Beauty story, "Keys to the Kingdom", since the original film, this time as the main protagonist. In the story, Prince Phillip, King Hubert, King Stefan and Queen Leah go off for a Royal Conference for two days. During this time Princess Aurora, Flora, Fauna and Merryweather are in charge of the Kingdom until they return. Throughout the segment, Aurora attempts to rely on staying calm during hectic situations but this proves to be a challenge. Later on, Flora, Fauna and Merryweather leave the castle to return Hubert's forgotten speech. Before she left, Merryweather allowed Aurora to use her magic wand during harsh times. Aurora initially thought of this as an easy way to avoid hassle, ignoring her original vow to stay calm. Soon enough, the magic causes more trouble than before having her result to her previous plans which prevail. Aurora succeeds and when the others return, they enjoy a banquet she prepared. It was implied in this story that Aurora's favorite color was pink seeing how she only wore her pink princess dress for this entire story and she changed the color of her nightgown pink right before she went to bed. Mary Costa, the original voice of Aurora, was not fond of this story and felt that it did not work.4 Sofia the First Aurora appears in the Christmas Special "Holiday in Enchancia". She is the first Disney Princess to not sing on the show, instead she only gives Sofia some good advice. When King Roland goes missing, Sofia and her family go out into the cold blizzard snow to find him, but as a result they get lost, too. When Sofia's amulet starts to glow, she wanders off to a spot where she can be alone and finds Aurora. Aurora tells Sofia she can always count on her animal friends to help her through tough times, before disappearing. Ralph Breaks the Internet Trivia * Aurora's name means "sunrise" or "dawn" in Latin. ** On a related note, she is also the first Disney Princess to have a name independent of that of the movie she appeared in. * Out of all Disney Princesses, she has least screen time, 18 minutes to be exact. During those 18 minutes, she said only 18 lines. So technically, this makes the Fairies the protagonists instead of her. * Her film did not originally do well at the box office nor was it ever re-released in Walt Disney's lifetime. Sleeping Beauty was also the last Princess film made in Disney's lifetime, and the fairy tale genre was not returned to until''The Little Mermaid'' in 1989. ** However, the film developed a loyal following in later years and Aurora has gained much popularity when the Disney Princess franchise was created. ** All the Princesses' films so far were commercially successful during their initial releases, except for Aurora's, thus making her film the only one to be a commercial failure during its initial release. Aurora would, however, later on appear in the highly successful live-action blockbuster film Maleficent. ** Aurora is also the last "traditional" Disney Princess; as these princesses in that era are more reactive. After that, the later Princesses are more "contemporary" and proactive, starting with Ariel in 1989. * In the sequel books, she has a palomino horse named Mirette. * Aurora's alias is Briar Rose, which is also the title of the Brothers Grimm version of the tale. ** The Brothers Grimm version of Sleeping Beauty is based on the 1634 story by Giambattista Basile called Sun, Moon and Talia. * The name Aurora is the daughter's name of the Sleeping Beauty in the version of Charles Perrault and is the name for the titular character in the ballet. * Aurora is the first Disney Princess to have an official alias. * Aurora is the first Disney Princess to have both parents present during her film, the second being Mulan, the third being Rapunzel, and the fourth being Merida. Tiana, Anna and Elsa could count, as both parents were present when they were a child, but they may not because Tiana's father dies in war, and Anna and Elsa's parents both die in shipwreck. * Aurora is one of the eight Disney Princesses to be royal by birth, second after Snow White. * Aurora remained silent in the second half of the film she originated in, even after being awoken with the kiss. * Aurora's dress is constantly changed from blue to pink and back again as a running gag during her film. The constant color change is due to Flora and Merryweather's disagreement on what the color should be. * Her real name, Aurora, which is mentioned few times in the film, is often unused or even unknown by some fans; by them she is only called Sleeping Beauty. This is notable in the House of Mouse episode "Jiminy Cricket", Jiminy Cricket addressed Aurora with "Sleeping" and "Beauty" as her first and last names respectively, reflecting on this. * The final scene of Sleeping Beauty with her and Prince Phillip dancing and going off into the clouds was an abandoned concept from both Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs and Cinderella. * In the ballet, her father is named King Florestan the XXIVth, the Prince is named Désiré or Florimund and the evil fairy is called Carabosse. There are five fairies named Candide (Candor), Coulante, Fleur de farine (Flowing, Wheat flour), Miettes qui tombent (Falling breadcrumbs), Canari qui chante (Singing canary), and Violente (Force). The Lilac Fairy is the final and 6th good fairy, and is considered the most powerful. * Aurora's actress, Mary Costa, is the only actress alive of the first three Princesses. Both Adriana Caselotti and Ilene Woods passed away. * Strangely, in Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep, Aurora's bed vanishes, as does Aurora herself when completing Terra's and Ventus's scenarios in her world, when she should be asleep in her bed. Though more than likely for the story of the world, it means that Aurora is awake due to Aqua helping Prince Phillip rescuing her. * Coincidentally, Kate Higgins, the latest voice actor for Aurora, also voices Briar Beauty, the daughter of Sleeping Beauty in the Mattel webisode series Ever After High. * Unlike most Princesses, her appearance is given more as that of a mature woman, rather than a 16-year-old girl.